Changing Times
by LD.Ferris
Summary: AU. Rory Gilmore aka Lorelai Leigh Gilmore-Hayden III allows her grandmothers to pull her further into the elite circles of Hartford Society. As a result, the anonimity that she has cherished as 'Rory' at Yale is gone and her circle of friends expands.
1. Getting Caught Up

**A/N: I don't own _Gilmore Girls,_ the WB or any other works by Amy Sherman-Palidino. But I fully embrace the opportunity to use the _Gilmore Girls_ world for my story.**

This story is an Alternate Universe plot. The most important aspects of this AU backstory that you need to know are:

Lorelai and Christopher got married before Rory was born and the young Hayden family lived in Hartford. Unfortunately, life was not all rainbows and sunshine, and by the time Rory was three years old her parents had seperated and she and Lorelai had moved to Stars Hollow. When she was 5-years old, Lorelai and Christopher finally divorced. Of course that wasn't the end of the story - every once in a while, for whatever reasons, Lorelai and Christopher would end up together again. They never lasted much longer than a few weeks but each time they managed to make things just a little bit harder for Rory and for each other. It was only through the constant companionship of her best friends: Paris Gellar, Tristan Dugrey, Louise Grant and Madeline Lynn, that she was able to cope with her parents alternating turns of sufficating affection and attention and the desolation of neglect.

Logan, Finn, Colin and Stephanie are two years older than Rory and her friends, and just like on the show after their sophmore year at Yale the group (as well as a few other friends) decided to take a year off school to sail around the world. And just like on the show, they sunk their yaht just off Fiji. The three boys spent their high school years at various boarding schools in the US, Europe and Australia while Stephanie went to Andover Preparatory. It was due to these circumstances that the two groups had never really met one another - or more accurately why Rory had never met Logan and his friends.

Most of what happened on the show did happen in the 'past' for this story. With those changes that I mentioned above. This story begins between the end of season 4 and the beginning of season 5. Enjoy.

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**Chapter 1 - Getting Caught Up**

"How does that sound to you Lorelai?" The words, the voice, snapped me back from my rambling thoughts and forced me to try and determine what everyone at the table surrounding me was talking about.

"I'm sorry, what?" I ask when it's obvious that I've missed something at least vaguely important from the groups conversation and that they really expect me to express my opinion.

"Good grief Lorelai," my grandmother sighs but I know she's not really upset because she's got an amused expression on her face.

"Daydreaming about me again Mare??" the young man sitting next to me says with a smirk.

I roll my eyes, of course he's got to get a dig in somehow, but I do manage to refrain from elbowing him in the ribs. "Maybe I need more help than I thought." I mutter loud enough for everyone at the table to hear and I start looking around the room, pretending to be searching for something.

"What are you looking for dear?" One of my grandparents friends, a Mrs. Amelia Vanderbilt, asks from the other side of the table.

"A diversion." I reply without stopping my search.

"A diversion?" The same woman asks as though my answer makes absolutely no sense at all.

Admittedly, to her anyways, my answer probably doesn't make any sense. I 'give up' my search with a sigh and turn back to the group at the table. Sliding a glance to Tristan beside me I answer with a smirk of my own. "Well obviously if I was daydreaming about Tristan I need something to distract my self with, if only to save myself a lifetime of self-disgust." The unexpected answer causes the only other young person at the table, besides Tristan and myself, to choke slightly on her drink, and judging by the pinched looks on both my grandmother's faces and on Trisha Dugrey's face they are all biting their tongues, or cheeks, to keep from laughing aloud.

"Ouch. That hurts Mare," Tristan says as he taps on his chest just over his heart. "Right here."

I laugh and smile sweetly at him. "I'm sure you'll get over it."

Everyone is laughing and hopefully I've managed to make them forget that I wasn't paying attention in the first place, or at least distracted them enough that no one will ask what I'd been thinking about. Hopefully.

"Now," my Grandmother Hayden says as the laughter begins to die down. "We were just wondering if you and Victoria would like to spend the day with Tristan while we older ladies go to tea at Lady Mallory's."

I frown slightly as I glance back and forth between my Grandmother and Grandma Gilmore. Usually they would insist that I went with them since Lady Mallory was my Great-Gran Gilmore's cousin. "I'm sure that will be fine." I tell them still glancing back and forth between them. "Are you sure cousin Terrington won't mind that I'm not there?"

"She won't mind at all. We'll tell her that you're entertaining friends that came into town unexpectedly. Besides, she wasn't really expecting you to be there. You hadn't planned on making this trip with us after all." Grandma Gilmore explains with a smile on her face but there is something in her expression that make me nervous. It's the glint in her eye that appears when ever she's meddling with something, or someone.

"Well then, I guess it just you, me and Victoria, Mare." Tristan announces as if that wasn't blatantly obvious, and now I wonder whether his being here is as unexpected as his mother made it seem. "Should we go?"

* * *

Several hours later it's obvious to me that Tristan didn't just 'decide on a whim' to spend a couple of weeks flouncing around Europe with his mother. Like me, he's got some ulterior motive for being there, I just haven't figured out what, yet. As I watch him telling Victoria Vanderbilt stories of us from Chilton, and listen to her giggle and flirt with him I can see there is something in his expression that says he's got something important on his mind. We've been sight-seeing for hours and finally stopped at a quiet cafe to have a late lunch and some coffee. After we eat we're going to go to a museum for a while and then back to the hotel to meet our families for dinner.

Tristan pays for lunch and as we leave the cafe Victoria tells us that she's sort of tired, "jet-leg" she says, but I think she's just picked up the vibes that both Tristan and I have other things on our mind and would probably appreciate the reprieve from running around the city. So we change directions and walk the dozen or so blocks to our hotel so that we see a bit more of the 'culture of the city' as Tristan's mother would call it and go our separate ways once we get inside.

An hour later there's a knock on my door and I get up from my laptop, where I'd been writing an e-mail to my mother, to answer. Tristan's leaning against the door frame holding a drink tray with 4 large coffee's from the cafe across the street.

"Sanctuary?" He asks as he holds the tray out to me. I laugh as I take one of the cups from the tray and let him into the room, closing the door softly behind him.

"I take it your mother is back from tea and visiting with Cousin Terrington?" I say to him as he sets the tray down on the coffee table, takes a cup and then flops down onto the couch.

"The least she could have done, after practically forcing me to come over here with her, was get me my own suite. For the love of God, Mare, we're 20 years old and while you get this lovely suite to yourself, _I'm sharing with my mother_." He groused and now he's really got my interest piqued, especially the 'practically forcing me to come over here' comment.

I hold my free hand over my heart and give my best Southern Belle imitation. "You mean you didn't really hear that I was in Europe for the summer and decide that you just _had_ to come and keep me company?"

"Please. If I'd known that you were going to be here, I wouldn't have put up as much of a fight as I did." He told me and that particular light I knew so well came back into his eyes and I knew there was even more trouble on the horizon of our lives. "As it is, it basically came down to Dad telling me that I was coming with Mom or he was putting a block on all of my accounts."

"Oh, Tristan." What else could I say? It's not like it was the first time Samuel Dugrey had threatened to cut Tristan off.

"That's not even the worst part Mary. Dad and Grandfather have decided that it's time for the wedding. I've been told that it's going to be a Winter Wedding, in either December or January. _That_ we get to decide for ourselves but we have to choose by the tenth of October." The tone of his voice was chilling, again though, it wasn't unfamiliar. I hadn't heard it a couple of years but I recognized it and just like in old times, I wasn't entirely sure whether I could make things any better for him.

"It's not really a shock though, is it? I mean we've known this was coming for a long time. Even if he'd never really said anything specific about it." At this point I figured reason couldn't hurt.

"Knowing that it was going to happen at some time in the distant future and knowing that it is going to happen at some point in the next 7 months, are two very, very different things. Fuck Mare, married!" Apparently he didn't want logic.

"I really wish that I could make things better for you." I told him sincerely.

Tristan turned and met my eyes with his - blue to blue. "You could tell me what you're doing in Europe. Last time we talked you were planning on spending the summer with your mom and helping out with the new Dragonfly opening."

I couldn't help blushing. Or biting my lip as I tried to think of how to tell him. Or avoid telling him all together. "Tris..."

"Don't do that Rory." He threatened and took hold of my chin so that I couldn't turn away. "You wouldn't be here if you didn't have a damn good reason."

"Or a really bad reason." I suggested, trying anything to get out of telling him. He just raised his eyebrows and continued to stare. Not finding anything else to say to stall the inevitable, I blurt out the truth. "I slept with Dean on the night of the opening."

"What?" He chocked out. "Married Dean??"

"Married Dean. And then Mom caught us."

"Jesus. When you decide to go for it, you go all the way." And he had the audacity to chuckle as if my situation was humorous.

So I slapped him. On the chest. "It is NOT funny Tristan. She was so mad and I was so stupid. I mean, God! As if committing adultery once wasn't bad enough, I met him the next day and it happened again. I didn't mean to, I had no intention of sleeping with him again but it happened. And I knew that if I didn't get out, fast, I'd keep doing it and...."

"I'm sorry Mare." He told me and by this point his entire expression had sobered so I knew that he was serious.

"I don't know what to do. This is definitely not how I intended for, uh, things to happen."

"I know." A flash of amusement warmed his eyes again. "You have to love the irony though. I mean, you held on to your virginity through high school while the rest of us were sleeping around, and in 24hrs you manage to catch up to us in disgraceful acts. Just imagine what would happen if word of your fall from grace became public."

I burst into tears.

"Shit. Rory, I'm sorry. I'm stupid. I didn't mean that the way I'm sure it sounded." He pulled me into his arms and instantly I burrowed close. "Rory I'm sure that Dean's not going to tell anyone."

"He'll lose his wife." I interjected through my tears.

"He's also, usually, a really good guy. I may not like the loser but he was always really good to you." That just made me cry harder. Dean had probably always been good to Lindsay too, until I came back to town. "You made a mistake Mare. It's not the end of the world and it's not going to kill you. _He's_ the one who cheated. That was his choice, not yours. You're not blameless but it's sure not all your fault."

"I don't love him anymore."

"I know you don't Mare. But you did once. Sometimes it's hard to completely let those feelings go, isn't that what you told me once upon a time? No one who truly loves you is gonna hold this against you babe, cause we've all made mistakes. It's called being human." Tristan told her softly while he rubbed circles on her back.

"Mom was so disappointed in me. You should have seen her face Tristan. It was like she didn't even recognize me."

"It'll be okay."

"How?"

**So there it is, this first chapter of my first published story.**

**What do you think?**

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	2. Walking Back into Reality

**A/N: **Thank you to everyone that reviewed. I know that you've got questions (i.e. Who the heck is Tristan marrying??) but all I can say is that the answers will come in time. For now, dear readers, please sit back, relax and enjoy the second chapter of 'Changing Times.'

**I don't own _Gilmore Girls,_the WB or Amy Sherman-Palidino but I'm privileged to be able to use the world and make my own story!**

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**Chapter 2 - Walking Back into Reality**

It was truly amazing what a few weeks of introspective thinking and escape from your worries could do for a person. For me, it gave me the perspective to see that while a part of me would always love Dean, I couldn't be in love with him. He would always be special to me because he was my first - boyfriend, love, lover. But being with him those two days before I'd gone off to Europe had shown me one thing about him that I'd always denied before. Whether the circumstances were right or wrong didn't really matter, in the end he just wasn't the right guy for me.

The discoveries I made about myself and my recent interactions with Dean made coming home to Stars Hollow extremely difficult for me. Even Tristan staying with me for the last week of summer before we both headed back to our respective Ivy League colleges didn't help all that much. I felt so horrible for what I'd done, for what I'd allowed Dean to let me believe without questioning him. For days before we headed back to Connecticut, I prayed that Dean would be gone. Or that Lindsay would. Anything that would make it easier for me. Unfortunately that's not what I found when I did get home.

Fortunately, what I did find was a twist of fate that I hadn't expected. Lindsay and Dean were still together. After I had left town, Dean had told Lindsay what had happened. They fought. They made up. And now they are having a baby. Whatever the state of their relationship had truly been before we'd slept together, Lindsay and Dean were happier than ever by the time I came back to town 10 weeks later. Of course I didn't get away completely unscathed, there was one minor ugly encounter with Lindsay that I would like nothing better than to forget.

_"I sure hope you're not trying to steal him from some other poor, unsuspecting woman." Lindsay said to me when Tristan and I ran into her in the middle of town square._

_"I beg your pardon?" I chocked out. I certainly hadn't expected her to approach me - hostile or not. I didn't think she would want anyone to know that her husband had cheated on her. _

_She looked pointedly at Tristan, who stood silently beside me with a smirk on his face. "I always wondered if there was something going on between the two of you. You always just seemed too comfortable with each other." She looked us both over, pausing briefly on the hands we held between us. "I know you were a virgin when you slept with my husband but maybe now that you've lost that, and your morals, you've decided any woman's man is good enough for you."_

_I could only stare at her, like an open-mouthed, drooling idiot for a few seconds before my hard sought resolve flashed back into place._

_"Lindsay I know that it doesn't mean all that much now, but I'm_ sorry._ I never set out to hurt you and I certainly never intended for what happened to, uh, happen. I-"_

_"Just stop." She told me and it seemed like she too was still grappling with how to deal with this situation._

_"I'm only in town for four more days." I said softly. "After that I'll only be around every once in a while."_

_"You don't have to leave town Rory." She sighed. "I admit that the thought crossed my mind but this town is as much your home as it is mine, and Dean's. We're all just going to have to figure out how to deal with each other." Her tone was honestly thoughtful and that only made me feel worse. Lindsay really didn't deserve what Dean and I had done to her._

_"It's not so much me leaving town. I'm going to school." I explained and I was firm in my resolve. This was the conclusion that I had come to after hours, and hours of debating what I could do. "I was always going to be going back to school. I just won't try as hard to come back, at least not very often." _

_Lindsay looked away, seeing something that only she could envision in the distance. After what seemed like hours she finally looked back. Her lip and chin trembled slightly. "Maybe I'll go to Hell for this, because I know this isn't fair to Lorelai, but I'm happy that you won't be here. I love Dean and I know that he loves me. Still when you're around it's like I'm not quite enough. I don't quite measure up."_

_"Lindsay that's not true." I tried to argue. We both knew it was to Dean though. At least for now. She smiled slightly and then nodded to Tristan. _

_"Have a nice life Rory."_

Tristan and I spent our last couple of days focusing on this issue of "The Wedding," as we'd come to think of it over the course of the summer. Like I'd said right from the beginning, it wasn't something that had just cropped up out of no where. He'd known, we'd both known that it was going to come sooner or later. Of course, he'd been hoping for later but even he admitted that since we were all turning 21 that year, the ticking of that particular bomb had been getting louder for some time in his mind. He'd just been avoiding it. And the bride.

Somehow the remainder of the summer didn't end up being too bad and when we went our separate ways - him to Princeton and me back to Yale - I felt much better about things than I had in quite some time.

Little did I know, that those feelings of contentment and even confidence were going to be needed more than ever once I found my way back into the hallowed halls of Yale.

* * *

Marty and I turned away from the coffee vendor and continued our conversation.

"I mean, I always thought I looked a lot like my Uncle Jerry, and, gee, Mom seemed to really like him." I was listening to his tale about his summer vacation and I could barely keep myself from laughing.

"I cannot believe this." I said with a shake of my head. I was literally reeling with shock underneath my amusement. "After all this time, your mother tells you now."

"My Dad looked relieved." He said it lightly but I looked at him closely trying to determine whether there was something more lurking on the inside. Unlike with my other friends - Tristan and the others - I couldn't read Marty's face, I couldn't guess his emotions.

"He did not." I said with some sympathy.

Marty glanced at me and gestured dramatically as he spoke, wiping an arm across his brow. "I swear, I heard him say 'whew.'"

I could only stare. "Oh, that is amazing." And he shrugged.

"So, what did you do over the summer?" The question was innocent enough, and normally wouldn't have made me uncomfortable but at that moment I recalled very briefly the look on my Mother's face when she walked into the house and found me with Dean.

"Well. We so should have started with me." I wasn't about to tell him what had happened with Dean, but I figured I could tell him something of the time that I spent in Europe with my grandmothers.

Just then a guy in a red sweater vest bumps into Marty from behind and he turns to see who it was. When he spots Sweater Vest and the guys he's with, Marty moves to stand beside me.

"Oh, sorry." He tells them.

Sweater Vest responds and instantly his tone sets me on edge. "No, seriously, you couldn't see me there?"

_The nerve of this guy!!!_He had walked into Marty. Marty and I hadn't even started to walk away from the barrista yet.

"Not every one's staring at you Colin." This guy certainly looks more footloose and fancy free and as he throws his arm around Sweater Vest's shoulders, his Australian accent registers in my mind.

But before Marty or I have any chance to respond to 'Colin's' hostility, the third guy in their group, a blond with messy hair and wearing a blazer cuts in. "Hey, I know you. No, wait, wait, don't tell me. I'm seeing a uniform of some sort."

"Maytag Repairman?" The Aussie suggests with a snigger. I glare at him and Colin.

"I've bartended for you. For your parties." Marty is saying to Blondie.

"That's right, you have. You're a talented man." Blondie compliments Marty with a smile and I have to admit that he's got a really great smile. "He makes a kick ass margarita!"

Marty chuckles embarrassed. "Thanks."

"It's good to see you again. What's your name?"

"Marty." And with a nod in my direction he introduces me as well. "Uh, this is Rory."

Blondie doesn't even glance in my direction but as he continues his conversation with Marty, asking him if he'd be interested in bartending more parties this year, I'm fully aware of the Aussie and Colin studying me. Marty and the blond wrap up their chat and Blondie starts to walk away. Colin apparently decides that he's got to get one more dig in.

"Excellent shirt." He says in Marty's direction and the sound of his voice would put my grandma Emily to shame. Then he looks at me. "I can see what you see in him."

"Don't be an ass Colin!" Blondie yells back at them.

"Me? Never." Sarcasm literally drips from the words. "I'm a friend to all people, large and very, very small." And with that he turns and follows Blondie and the Aussie through the court yard and into a nearby building.

"I kind of hate those guys." Marty says, but something in his tone makes me hesitate before making any reply. In all honesty, they probably could have been much, much worse to him. I'd seen confrontations just like this at Chilton. I'd been involved in some of them. But even I could admit that Colin's hostility, apparent right from the start, didn't really make much sense.

"Really?" I finally answered dryly. "I can't see why."

The interlude in the courtyard was as far from my mind as possible when I returned to my dorm later that day. Paris had finally arrived and she was devastated. Not that she showed it, mind you, but I'd been her best friend for years and just like with Tristan, I could see what others didn't. I spent the rest of the evening with her, consoling her when she finally allowed a few tears to fall and supporting her efforts when she decided that she wanted to have a wake for her recently deceased lover - Professor Asher Fleming.

It was in this effort to support my friend that I ended up running into Blondie, the Aussie and Sweater Vest (aka Colin) again. I can honestly say that there have been very few times in my life that I've wanted to yell at someone and give them a peice of my mind. Usually only Tristan, and some of the guys that he hangs out with, is able to get me as upset as Blondie has managed within one day of making my acquaintance. It's ironic really because I don't even know his name, and he didn't even remember mine, but I couldn't just let him get away with treating Marty the way he had.

Somehow, and I don't even know how he managed it, what started as an attempt on my part to give him a dressing down turned into a debate of sorts. While I will never admit that he actually got the better of me, at least not out loud, I will allow that he does have a superior talent for manipulating conversation to his whim. _'Master and Commander'_indeed! I certainly will never stoop so low as to actually call him that. Now, a few days later I can look back and laugh at our conversation. I still can't believe that I told he was acting like Judi Densh and what's more, I can't believe that he actually understood the insult. Perhaps there is more to Blondie than I thought.

I was interupted from my colorful thoughts by a rukus just outside the door of the Yale Daily News office and the resulting whispers that moved through the room where I sat at my desk. Then, in a twist that I hadn't seen coming, Blondie swaggers through the door as if he owns the entire office and heads directly towards her. Or perhaps, towards Doyle who just happened to have stopped beside her.

"Oh no." Doyle muttered.

Rory turned and looked up at him. "What?"

"He's back." Doyle said under his breath and then smiled at Blondie as he reached us.

"Doyle, my friend." He said as they shook hands. "You're looking very, very well, how ya been?" I wondered if Doyle could hear the sarcasm in Blondie's voice.

Doyle answered in a fake, cheerful voice. "I've been great Logan. Great to have you back." And yep, Doyle had heard the sarcasm and this whole scene was like a play being performed for an invisible audience.

"Yeah, well, I stayed away as long as I could, but the Yale Daily News called to me." Logan told him.

"Oh, sure. Sure. So how's everything? How's the family?" Doyle asked. _'How's the family?'_ Seriously the guy might be a great editor but he is utterly lacking in small talk skills.

Logan smiled that same winning smile, the one he's flashed at Marty earlier in the week, and responded. "Everything's fine, the family's the family... Ah, my desk. Beautiful."

I listen as Doyle explains that he's already given away all of the assignments and Logan explain that it doesn't matter. He even tells Doyle that he's only "here for the pretty picture in my father's head." I shake my head as they talk. Nepotism is apparently avid in the newsroom at Yale and it makes me wonder who Logan's father is. Not that it really matters, who ever he is - whatever he is - doesn't change what Logan is. My attention is caught as Logan looks at me and smiles.

"Rory. Nice to see you." I didn't respond but smiled slightly before turning back to my computer. Or at least that was my intention. Suddenly Doyle was looming beside me.

"You know Logan? How do you know Logan?" He demanded.

I frowned and glanced quickly over at Logan before turning to face Doyle. "No, I don't know him. I met him. A friend introduced us."

"So you're not friends?" Doyle asked again and he too glanced over at Logan, who by this point had found paperclips in the drawer of his desk and was playing with them.

"No, _definitely_ not friends." I assured him with a shake of my head.

So Doyle leaned closer and lowered his voice. "That guys a real piece of work. He took last year off with a bunch of his friends to sail Daddy's yacht around. Till he sank it."

"He _sank_ his father's yacht?" This was amazing. You'd think that something like that would have been big news in society. I might have spent most of the last three months in Europe but I still should have heard about this - even though I didn't know what Logan's name was or what his family was 'in,' I knew that he was from society.

"Right off of Fiji." Doyle assured me with a nod and made another quick glance towards the topic of our conversation before continuing. "They spent six months gallivanting and partying and doing God-knows-what else, until Daddy sent one of his planes to bring him back."

I managed, barely, to keep from curling my lip with disgust. Apparently Logan is even worse than I had assumed. "I'm guessing his father's rich." I didn't phrase it as a question, it was more than obvious that Logan was rich.

Doyle scoffed. "His father is Mitchum Huntzberger."

I froze.

I'd like to say that it was only with surprise but it wasn't. _Oh shit._ Even as I continued my conversation with Doyle my mind reeled with this new information. Blondie was _Logan Huntzberger, _famed playboy, prankster and all around slacker. I'd never met him because by the time I'd started moving about in society, he'd been shipped off to a succession of boarding schools that - if the rumors were true - numbered in the double digits. Underneath all of these realizations was another, equally important one. Logan Huntzberger was the only son of Mitchum Huntzberger and small incestuous world that Hartford Society seemed at times, Mitchum Huntzberger was one of my Grandfather Hayden's good friends. So was Mitchum's father, Elias Huntzberger.

_Well. Shit._ Doyle started walking away and I glanced over at Logan.

He lifts the phone to his ear and follows Doyles progress first toward and then past his desk as he says in a very '1920's reporter' voice. "Hello, city desk? Smitty here, take this down. I've got a hot scoop on a tall blond and I gotta put it to bed on the double!" He hangs up the phone and laughs at Doyles expression. He glances at me and winks, then kicks his feet up on the desk, leans back, tips his hat over his face and settles in for a nap.

I keep my expression as stoic as I can until I'm pretty sure that he's not paying any attention to me. Then I turn back to my computer screen and allow a smile of amusement, and a small chuckle, to escape my control. Things may have just become seriously complicated but they could always be worse.

A week later I'm busy working on an article. Research mostly but I am trying to do a rough draft as well. Every few minutes I curse the name Huntzberger because it's the only link I've got to the 'Life and Death Brigade' and Logan refused to admit that he'd ever heard of the group. As I glance up I notice Paris face is twisted into something of a grimace.

"Hey. You okay?" I ask her.

She nods but turns a bit green. "Yeah. I think I had some bad host at one of the masses yesterday." She walks over to her desk and sits down. Logan slips in through the door and heads straight to his desk. Then he logs into his computer. _Strange._

A minute later, I understand why he's here as an instant message pops up on my screen.

_L - Hey Ace. I've got a proposition for you._

I glance over and see that he's watching me. I bite my lip in contemplation before I reply.

_R - Shoot._

_L - I'll help you with your article. Get you the inside scoop. You just have to agree to a few conditions first._

_R - What conditions?_

_L - The first condition is you have to agree before you know the conditions._

I bite my lip again and frown.

_L - What do you say Ace? You in, or out?_

I smile. I may be hesitant but I'm sure not going to lose my chance at this scoop.

_R - I'm in._

I look up and glance in his direction. Except he's not there. He hadn't even waited for my answer, so sure that I would agree. I shake my head in exasperation and decide that perhaps it's time for me to call my Grandfather _(Grandfather's?)_ and have a chat with him about the 'Life and Death Brigade.'

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**So this concludes chapter two... Are you still liking it? Am I wasting my time?**

**Let me know what you think and one lucky reviewer will get a sneak peek at chapter three!!**


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